


Here's To The Broken Ones

by airiustide



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Dom!Zuko, Dom/sub, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, Romance, S1 but they are aged up folks, Smut, zutarasmutexchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:35:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26764426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airiustide/pseuds/airiustide
Summary: Trouble seems to follow Katara wherever she goes. Maybe she likes trouble. *Maybe you are trouble*, Zuko once told her.They tell themselves this isn't love, that nothing more can come from two souls bound for different paths. One thing we can be sure of in this story, Zuko and Katara have a hard time keeping promises.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 202
Collections: Add to Zutara Masterlist, Zutara Smut Exchange





	Here's To The Broken Ones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bulletproofteacup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bulletproofteacup/gifts).



> Look at me, diving into another project with a big ol' bowl of zutara steaminess. Because, hell, I can't stay away for long. I tend to join these events with an intention on keeping to the word count, but you know how it goes. (laughs nervously)
> 
> As for my giftee, I hope you like the fic and to my loyal readers, enjoy!

“You live too much in your mind.”

“So do you.”

“You swore.”

“You’ll come to learn soon that I don't always keep my promises.” Katara chuckled nervously. The setting before her played a scene, like the night sky was their stage and they were lost lovers drawn to each other like magnets. Romantic, right? The idea of two enemies on opposite sides coming together to proclaim their love. This wasn’t love, or so she thought. An addiction, perhaps. 

“Look at me.”

She keeps her gaze steady on the window. She will not give. She will not falter. There is nothing that could ever be said that will compel her to betray the world. No concession to the voice that makes the tremors tighten in the muscles of her womb. 

Katara catches her bottom lip between her teeth, shutting her eyes briefly to the predicament she had been so naive to find herself in. How could she have allowed this? A swift opening for the Fire Nation Prince to capture her. Lure her into his clutches. She shivered as the cold ran deep in her bones despite the heat of the room. This was a mistake of her own making. Foolish. 

Trouble seems to follow Katara wherever she goes. Maybe she likes trouble. _Maybe you_ are _trouble_ , Zuko once told her.

That aside, she can’t shake the cool stare he was directing at her. Pressing hard on her skin, tapping tendrils of electricity up and down her spine. Katara feels an odd sensation of sparrowkeets flutter in her belly and a slight ting of heat brushes her cheeks. 

Katara’s hands are placed on the wall, an attempt to grasp some sort of leverage, because Zuko’s proximity is drawing fire from the base of her spine and making a destination for the space between her legs. 

He’s quiet, disturbingly calm for his nature, in all his armor, hands lingering over luscious curves. She can feel hot breath on her lobe, lips curled into a wicked smile and white teeth tugging playfully at the skin. Katara inhales sharp through her nose, suppressing the uneasiness from showing on her face. She instead expresses defiance, unwilling to give Zuko the satisfaction of seeing her falter. 

“You’re complicated.” He finally says after a long silence. 

Katara rolls her eyes. “We both know you like complicated.”

He opens the palm of his hand, revealing a familiar trinket tied securely to a silky blue ribbon. Cerulean slightly widens. He did not discard it. Why keep it when she meant so little to him? When this arrangement of theirs is nothing but a means to relieve the tension of a dangerous attraction. “You kept it.” Katara breathes. 

Zuko curls his fingers over the necklace. “I kept it.” He confirms.

“You’re despicable.” Katara hissed. Deep down, she didn’t mean it. Nonetheless, she can’t allow herself to feel elated that he kept something so precious when he knew very well it was useless to use against her. 

“Am I? Your tone suggests otherwise. I told you since the beginning it's nothing personal. I need the Avatar to restore something I’ve lost-”

“Yes, your honor.” Katara interrupted. “You know what you can do with your honor?”

Zuko frowns, lips still pressed to her earlobe. 

“You can take your honor and shove it!”

Zuko spins her around, provoking a gasp to escape her. He growls a warning, leaning into her until her back meets the wall, hands planted on either side of Katara. But despite towering over her, radiating implacable strength, he stays unmoved. Katara is daring him with her stormy eyes.

“You will not speak to me in such a manner. I could easily turn this around, make you my prisoner. Don’t forget, you came here by choice, water tribe peasant. I have the advantage here, you’re lucky I’m a lenient man.” It’s all a lie. Katara has more of an advantage over him than she can ever realize. 

“Is that so? Lucky is a stretch, Zuko, especially coming from you.”

“Stand down, waterbender. Your words just might be your undoing.”

Katara scoffs, throwing her hair back and accessing him hard. “I’m not scared of you.”

He bows his head, shutting his eyes tight. Dark smoke curls from his nostrils and Zuko says something that deepens the shadows in her features. “I’m scared of you. But not in the way you think.” 

A slow smirk stretches on his lips. The air thickened. There was a promise on those lips, one that made her heart thud wildly. Zuko discerns her reaction. Taking the weight of his strong chest with him, he faintly traces callus fingers along her jawline. Katara winces. She sinks back, surprised by his gentle touch-- something that was at complete odds with his demeanor. 

“You know what I’m talking about.” Her body temperature spikes. Her body becomes aware of him, of his masculinity. Katara shakes the thoughts from her head. His fingers went to her chin. Katara doesn’t like the velvet rasp of his voice and how it felt caressing her skin. She found herself leaning into it and she cursed her body for betraying her. “You remember don’t you?”

“No.” Katara hissed between clenched teeth. Regardless, she shudders; mesmerized. The faint thrum of her heart bursts into full speed and sends a rush though her bloodstream. 

“Hmm.” Zuko bows his head, resting his forehead on hers. 

Katara casts her eyes to the floor, fighting the temptation to draw closer. 

“Your body remembers.” 

Katara inhales sharply, shaken. She wants to fight it. She _needs_ to fight it. How unfair, when he reaches to trace her lips, that she immediately parts them. She’s falling senseless, her train of thought swept away with one touch. “Please.” It rolls off her tongue unexpectedly, unsure if it was a plea for him to stop or continue. 

“Please? I should be the one pleading. Look what you’ve done to me. Are you not at fault for this?” He cups her face, thumb grazing the curve of her cheekbone. “Katara.” He keens her name. He never says her name. Never. Unless- 

She can’t fall for it. _Not_ again. But there’s no pull back when his mouth comes crashing down on hers. Every inch of her body comes to a halt, the only thing she can feel is the intensity of his kiss all the way down to her toes. “ _We can’t_.” She tries to reason, throwing her head back from the kiss, panting harshly. 

“I don’t believe you.” He retorts, using the opportunity to capture the pulse of her neck. 

“It’s wrong.” She protests. Yet she wraps her legs around him, let’s him spin her around until they both fall to the bed. 

“It _is_. But you were the one who proclaimed she liked trouble, if I recall.” Zuko murmurs into her skin, teeth raking over pulsating flesh. He’s succumbed to a waterbender of all people, pressed on top so that she caved beneath him, instinctively wrapping her legs around his waist. She’s a fiery creature, harboring a spark brighter than any firebender. Though, that was a surprise, Zuko’s still drawn to her like a moth, in spite of his better judgement. He can’t pinpoint how she gained this power over him and he doesn’t care to trek further to find out. All he wants is her. 

“You surrender so prettily.” Zuko praises. She’s like a drug, and Zuko isn’t sure he could ever get the taste of her out of his mouth. “I know you’re already wet. Let me take care of you.”

“I don’t need to be taken care of.”

“I beg to differ.” He claimed her mouth again, Katara’s sanity fading, fighting to keep in mind who she is and what Zuko is to her. She’s slowly losing that battle, her knees quaking, her lips quivering and her tongue finding solace in the crevasses of Zuko’s mouth. She’s hesitant in her search at first, anxiety overcoming her thoughts because it isn’t supposed to end up this way. Not again. “I’m scared too.”

He breaks the kiss. “I can help with that. Keep your eyes on me. Only me.”

Only him. For an enemy bent on destroying the world’s only hope, his touch was fervent, leaving a mark wherever they claimed. Mapping every inch of Katara as he undresses her from head to toe. Her robe parts so effortlessly, skillful fingers undo the knot keeping her bindings in place oh-so tenderly, the fabric draping over her waist. 

“Undress me?” Zuko’s voice commands, but she can tell he’s nervous too. He sits up on his knees, waiting for her to unsecure his armour, then his tunic, before pulling the strings holding his trousers in place to reveal the dip of his V-line. His cock is erected, standing to attention. It’s hard as steel; so hard it peers above his trousers, leaking precum against the fine planes of his taut abs. 

He has a strong fascination with the way her hands move, a reminder that she is indeed a waterbender and not the kind of woman he had always envisioned himself growing up to court. So delicate. They feel so good on his hard flesh. Zuko grunts low in his chest. 

He aids Katara by stepping out of his remaining article of clothing. Reaching above his head, he pulls down rope linked to the canopy above them, the metal design attached to all four posts meeting in the middle. “Tell me if it’s too tight.”

Katara slips on her knees as well, facing Zuko, utter disapproval piercing him from her hard stare. But she knows, and he knows, that she dare not withdraw. She raises her arms, still fixated on him. 

“So obedient.” He coos. “I just might go easy this time.”

“If I wanted easy, Zuko, I wouldn’t be here.” 

“Fair enough. I’ll remember that from now on.” He smirks. 

Her breath hitches, Zuko tugging the rope roughly, ensuring her bound wrists are secure before proceeding to reach the sides of her breasts, stroking pads that left a rush to her lungs. He bends down, mouth whispering over the swell of her breasts, thumbs tweaking her dusky nipples. His tongue alternates between her breasts, hungry and hot; raking the edge of his teeth until Katara cries out desperately. She’s writhing in her bounds, her center weeping with her need, and she rubs her thighs together to subside the ache. 

“Don’t hold back.” Zuko husks. “I have you. No one can hear but us.”

One hand breaks away, moving down her body so that he could send fiery strokes up and down her cleft. Katara thrashed, overcome. “Get on with it.” She growled. 

“You’re not behaving well.” Zuko grins wolfishly, coming up to rest his forehead on hers. She sobs, squinting her eyes shut. She had to have him inside her; fill that empty space that only he can fill else she became consumed. The coil in her lower belly wound tighter, so tight she thought she might die. Zuko is basking in it. There may have been a divide in their way of life, complete opposites in their beliefs, but one thing they believe in was that all the wrongs in the world can’t erase how right this feels. “Don’t shut your eyes. Look at me, Katara.”

Damn him. Damn it all. Her body trembles, her lids finally opening to catch Zuko’s half lidded gaze striking her through the heart. They burn amber, Zuko sucking in his bottom lip after inserting a single digit past her slick folds. 

“Oh, my...mmm, I-” She chokes, her hands above her balling into a fist when he inserts another finger. 

“Katara.” He’s panting, snaking an arm around her and flushing her close so his hardened length rubbed against her bare hip. He works wonders with his fingers, prepping her nicely and enjoying the pull of her tight muscles sucking them in. He could watch her like this all day, watch her fall apart. She’s flying and Zuko thinks if she keeps making that look he’s bound to float away with her. “Agni, you’re so tight. So hot. Katara, you’re sucking me in.”

“Fuck.” She screams. The heat mounted. Higher and higher. She’s terrified at how good it is, so much that she thinks she might lose her mind. Katata lurches her pelvis forward, rubbing her thigh against Zuko’s cock and he’s right there crying a moan with her, drawing him in with her hungry mouth and she swallows it. 

His blood pulsed as she searched his mouth with her tongue, coaxing him to open up for her by pulling his upper lip with her teeth. He obliges, his tongue merging with hers. Zuko meets her thrust for thrust, desperate and hard. His brow furrows, Katara’s keen moans growing louder and louder and he comes to realize how quickly he’s losing control. 

Loosening his arm around her to bury a fist in her hair, he harshly pulls her head back. “You almost made me cum.” He gasps for air, gritting his teeth and jerking his hips back. His throbbing cock was a dark shade of red, the friction having turned the pulsating head nearly purple, veins protruding painfully after nearly being pushed over the edge. 

He doesn’t mistake the mischievous glint in Katara’s eyes. She has a way of turning things around. Zuko would easily have been angry if not the fact that he admired her for her skillful tactics. That’s what made her so perfect to him. She knew what she was doing, and an unfortunate thing for Zuko is he harbored an immense attraction towards her strong personality. 

“What will you do to me now?” She quips, a challenge lingering there.

“Give you exactly what you deserve.” He snarls, exposing white teeth. Katara is spun around, the rope around her wrists biting hard into her skin. Zuko administered one hard slap to her bottom, eliciting a cry and branding a searing imprint there. “You know, “ he starts, grabbing the rope above her head. “As irksome as I find your cleverness, it’s occurred to me how much I enjoy your disobedience.”

Zuko hugs her from behind, lining his cock at her entrance and gradually guiding his length until he bottoms out. Warmth spreads across his cheeks, her soft flesh wrapped around him like he was always meant to be there. It’s been weeks, a solid reminder that she truly did have him in the palms on her hands, no matter that Katara was the one tied up with her body at his disposal. “Mmm. Katara…” He moans softly.

She’s elated. Her body seizes as Zuko draws his hips back only to slam right back into her. Katara’s knees shook. The back of her head falls to his shoulder, her half lidded gaze drinks in his raw expression. Not the kind one gives to a person who happens to make for good sex, this was the expression one gives a lover. And they promised, so many times they promised, but they always failed.

Zuko doesn’t know it but he steadies her. He makes her feel wanted and she...well, she wants him to want her. She can feel it in the way he sighs, the way he rocks into her with such precision, focusing on the swell deep within her. 

He held her gaze captive, his jaw unhinged and breath running fast. She’s close, he could feel it. Her inner muscles convulse. His hands searched her body, carving his touch all over her neck, her chest, her stomach, until they set a course for her pearl. Zuko takes the opportunity to thrum the heat of his thumb relentlessly over her clit. 

His thrusts become vicious, gritting his teeth as he tries to suppress the longing hanging on the tip of his tongue. She has him ensnared; her constant chanting of his name, her airy sighs, her dreamy blue orbs only on him. He can’t contain it any longer. One last thrust and pleasure bursts right through him, Katara taking him with her as she climaxes. Zuko roars, shuddering fiercely and he can no longer hold back. “I love you!”

Katara goes lax in her bounds, Zuko hugging her to keep her steady. He did it. He said it. He shouldn’t have, but he said it. 

“Why?” She asks, trying to collect herself but the afterglow seems to last longer this time around and she’s still swimming in the aftermath of her orgasm. “You promised.”

Zuko huffs, resting his head between her shoulder blades, hiding the disappointment from showing on his face. “You’ll come to learn that I don’t always keep my promises.” He replies, throwing her words back at her and all Katara can do is remain silent. 

He frees her from her bounds and carefully removes himself, falling back into the bed to stare up at the ceiling of his cabin. He’s waiting for her to dress, to leave, so she can sneak out the path she always takes on his ship and to the place he can never follow. “We can’t do this anymore. We can’t see each other again.”

Katara attempts to placate him but he will not concede. “We always say that.”

“I know.” Zuko swallows. He reaches behind Katara for something, his gold eyes now a sorrowful shade, and he gently cups her hand, dropping her mother’s necklace in it. “Because we don’t know when to call it quits.” 

“Is that what you really think?” She’s hurt, bringing the necklace to her chest. Katara didn’t find satisfaction in something as basic as sex--not that it wasn’t a perk. For Zuko to think that of her, it shouldn’t bother her, but it deeply does. “It’s sad that you think this arrangement is some sort of means for me to get laid. I don’t go out of my way to lie to my brother and friend and sneak past your crew for something so significant to me. I come here for you, Zuko, and nothing else.”

He pulls his eyes from the ceiling to study her face, searching for a lie or possible falsehood in her statement. He wasn’t a good person and the only reason he’d ever _want_ to do better is because she makes him want to be better. Katara’s sweet, kind, and free-spirited. She’s a prodigy of her own right and in some ways, she kind of intimidates him. Aside from that, Zuko deeply admires her and wishes their circumstances didn’t get in the way of actually being together. 

But that won’t stop them. They were probably the two most stubborn people in the world, and this could either prove to be their weakness or their strength.

“You can’t possibly think I’m worth any of this.” He tries to reason. 

“I love you too, Zuko.” Katara confesses, reaching for his arm and tying her mother’s necklace to his wrist. She smiles, a beam to everything he wishes he could be. “Worth is something only you can give yourself. I just choose to follow my heart. And this? Well it’s more of a reason why we can’t so easily leave each other our lives.” 

He laughs despite himself, blinking back the water blurring his vision as he studies the trinket. Katara lies on top of him, crossing her arms over his chest and resting her cheek in her arms. She knew what she was doing and it was working. 

“It’s true.” He smiles back. “You really are trouble.”


End file.
